As is the case with many sports, the sport of golf requires considerable practice to attain the skills necessary to become an accomplished player. A golfer must hit many golf balls to become proficient and to develop the level of confidence required to compete with the course, opponents, and oneself.
Many golf shots employ the use of a tee and during regular practice sessions a ball may be teed up many times, requiring the golfer to bend from the waist or at the knees everytime a tee is applied to the ground and a golf ball is teed up. This expenditure of energy can be detrimental and detract from the golf shot itself. In some cases bodily injury can result.
As a consequence, numerous attempts have been made to provide devices which aid the golfer through reduction of the physical effort required to tee up a golf ball.
The following United States Patents disclose devices which are believed to be representative of the current state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,889,946, 2,609,198, 5,165,744, 5,439,213, 4,589,661, 5,499,813, 5,540,432, 5,494,279, 5,383,659, 4,969,646, 4,360,199, and 4,313,604.
The devices disclosed in the above-identified United States patents have one or more of the following deficiencies and disadvantages:
(a) Manufacturing cost is high because of the complexity of the device and materials used; PA1 (b) Many structural components and complex structural inter-relationships are required to accomplish the intended task; PA1 (c) Considerable time must be employed to accomplish the task; PA1 (d) The mechanism is awkward to use or is not reliable insofar as operation is concerned; and PA1 (e) Use is limited; for example, use is limited to just teeing a golf ball.